SYLLABUS FL 209 - 51 Spring 2001 
WORLD LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 
Dr. Caltvedt

Office hours: TWF 8:30-9:00 A.M.; 1:00-1:35 P.M. 
e-mail: lesc@elmhurst.edu ext 3106
 

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

a. from the LITERATURE Category of General Education:
* Increased ability to understand and appreciate the nature and uses of language.
* Increased awareness of the historic, cultural, spiritual, and personal contexts of literature.
* Increased appreciation of the unique opportunities for life-long learning afforded by reading and thinking about literary texts.

b. from my list:
*To gain an understanding of literature as such (see below)
*To enhance your understanding of humankind
*To increase your appreciation of writing
*To express yourself on literature
*To confront major issues raised in literature (war & peace, love, death, etc.)

BOOKS TO BUY at Book Cellar--(All are in English)

1.Fowlie, Wallace, ed. French Stories/Contes franCais Dover. 0-486-26443-2
2. Tolstoi, Leo The Kreutzer Sonata & Other Stories. Dover ed. 0486-27805-0
3. Halpern Daniel, ed. The Art of the Tale. An International Anthology of Short Stories 1945-1985. Penguin. ISBN: 0140079491 ;
4. Kenzaburo Oe. Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness. Grove Press ISBN 080215185X.
5. Calvino Nonexistent Knight & Cloven Viscount.1977. Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0156659751.
6. Duras, Marguerite. North China Lover. New Press; ISBN: 1565840437
[7. on-line texts to print out.]

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SHORT TEXT HAND-OUTS: (please return photocopies, after tests): Myths; 1001 Nights; Fairy Tales collected by the Grimm brothers; Colette, Borchert & Robbe-Grillet: Short narratives (as time permits).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS & PROCEDURES

1. 1/2 Quiz at the beginning of every session on groups of stories at the beginning of our discussion. Most questions will be of the "Did you read it" and "Did you read it carefully?" variety. Lowest (whole) quiz is thrown out. Missed quizzes are not made up. This quiz routine is meant to help you to read ahead, and thereby to know what your fellow students are talking about. One quiz grade is thrown out. If you miss a quiz, you must write a 1-1/2 page paper on some of the works discussed on the day you were absent, though your grade will still be affected by excessive absence. ß n.b. For example, if you get all A's, miss 3 classes, and are not hospitalized, you will not get an A.

2. Study Questions will be provided on-line for almost every work. You do not hand these in, but you should read them as you read your assignments, for these reasons:
a] They alert you to aspects the instructor thinks important; 
b] They are often used as quiz questions, and groups of them are the basis for some exam questions;
c] They act as a memory aid and compass for interpreting what you read.

Links to Study Questions:

Study Questions for French Stories

THE ART OF THE TALE Study Questions

Study Questions ---Tolstoy novellas

3. Class contribution, including presence and active participation in discussion. A note on attendance: many faculty members have taken steps to spell out consequences of excessive absences. In this class, your second absence will start to erode your grade average. In the case of an extended illness, contact me to explain your situation and to get assignments. **If you are absent for any reason (whole or ½ period), please write a 1-1/2 page paper which uses the study questions to interpret the work(s) discussed in your absence.**

3. Writing Assignments.

a. Journal. Optional in evening section. You are encouraged to write down your reactions to each work as you read. What thoughts does it provoke? What is the main character like? If helpful, include some answers to study questions. (See Suggestions for Study.) Staple the entries together or use a special notebook. The purpose of the journal is to give you practice in expressing yourself freely about literature; therefore it will not be graded for content.

b. Paper. Please think of this as a process.
Stage 1: read the work, and write study questions on the work (like those I give you in class).

Stage 2: Write draft of about 1/3 of what you plan to write, as per guide sheet which you will receive.

Stage 3: Write up and hand in the final draft.

(I) Content. You have the following options:

OPTION (a): Read an outside work by one of the following authors: 
(i) any author we read in class; OR
(ii) any of these authors: from France--Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, Mérimée, Zola, Colette, Gide, Camus, Sartre, Duras; from Germany--Kleist, Hoffmann, Tieck, Keller, Hauptmann, Zweig, Kafka, T. Mann, Handke, Böll, Wolf; from Africa--Bâ, Laye, Ousmane, Achebe. From Canada: Yves Thériault, Michel Tremblay.

Some authors, such as Kafka and Balzac are well represented in our library. For others, you may have to use interlibrary loan or try another library. I tell you this so you can plan ahead if you have an interest in an author who is less well known. Also, some well known authors’ novellas are in collections, with titles such as Five Great German Stories, Twelve German Novellas, German Short Stories or German Stories/Deutsche Erzählungen(or equivalent in Italian). The work you choose must be in PROSE, but may be a novel, novella, or group of short stories, if they total 50 pages or more. Consult with me to get the project approved and to get suggestions on how to proceed.

Include in your paper these 5 components 1. a short plot summary (1-2 pages maximum), 2. a discussion or extended reference to an in-class work, 3. your interpretation of the work or one aspect of the work (cf. Suggestions for Study), 4. a short report on one piece of criticism. If you are unable to find criticism on your chosen work, you may substitute relevant historical or social background, or relevant a report on criticism of another work by the author, with instructor permission. 5. (required!) A list of sources used, with quotations properly attributed. LENGTH: 7-12 pp.

OPTION (b): With instructor permission, you may view and report on a movie which is based on a work by one of our authors. You will need to borrow the video cassette and story from a public library (you'll need a public library card) or rent it. Include outside sources--criticism of the film and a discussion of the important differences between film and prose narration. Read the story, or portions, if a novel. Components 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 all apply here also. LENGTH: 7–12 pages.

FORM: Please follow the form you learned in English 105-106, for example, the MLA form. You must give credit for thoughts and words of others through footnotes. Published thoughts are legal property. *Note re on-line sources: Use hard copy (as in books) as first resort. All on-line information MUST have an author and organization listed. Hand in all web addresses consulted. Get librarian help. Expensive, RESPECTABLE on-line sources (databases) are available only through our COLLEGE library website, or at the library. Use these, if you do use on-line sources, and not newspaper reviews, or popular magazine articles. Questions?________

When you have written a draft, proofread to see that you used complete sentences (but not run-ons), and that spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct. Have someone else read the draft to check for errors and to give his/her reaction to the content.

** I will assign a progress report/partial draft. As an option, you may hand in a draft of the whole paper. I will comment on it and suggest changes. Please notify me when you have chosen a topic, so there are no duplications. Only one student may write about each work, though two may choose different works by the same author. *Choose topic by

Tues. 27 February; *Final draft is due on Tues. 1 May.

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GRADING: Mid Term = 25% ; Final - 25%; Class Participation (including attendance) and Quizzes = 35%; Paper 15%.

SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY:

1. Ask questions--while reading and in class. Some general ones are these: What is literature? (and what isn't?) What is it good for? How should we tackle a work in order to understand it? Why do we like some works better than others? What should we like?

2. Try to give each work a fair trial before judging it. Look for the positive, even in works you don't like, and expect to learn something from each one.

Include in your paper these 5 components 1. a short plot summary (1-2 pages maximum), 2. a discussion or extended reference to an in-class work, 3. your interpretation of the work or one aspect of the work (cf. Suggestions for Study), 4. a short report on one piece of criticism. If you are unable to find criticism on your chosen work, you may substitute relevant historical or social background, or relevant a report on criticism of another work by the author, with instructor permission. 5. (required!) A list of sources used, with quotations properly attributed. LENGTH: 7-12 pp.

3. Read the first paragraph twice, and also the first page or so, before going on to the rest. When you have read to the end, look at the beginning again to see how the work fits together.

4. Consider different ways of approaching literary texts. Here are some of the most common:
a. The work in and of itself. We look at the work as an object and describe what it is. We look at structure, themes, type or genre, and rhetorical devices.
b. The work and its relationship to the world. These are ways in which literature copies, reproduces, interprets its subject. Here we look at the relationship of the work to its contemporary culture, and consider the audience the author had in mind.
c. The work and its effect. We ask ourselves what it is in the work that moves us and why we identify with the characters in it.
d. The work as an expression of the author. Here we look at the relationship of the author to his work. We investigate the author's biography to see how it affected this particular work.

5. Literature belongs to the humanities. Make notes to yourself about the way human beings are treated by the author. For example, is each major figure an independent person or a being-in-relation-to-something? Is mankind seen as a subject (active, in control of his/her life) or more as an object (passive, an arena for the interplay of forces larger and stronger than the self?) Does the novel direct your attention outward from the individual, or does the world beyond him seem to be irrelevant to the concerns of the work? Is the relation between the individual person and human society an important issue? What is the person's situation in society? What is his/her attitude toward that situation?

6. What happens? Do psychological or spiritual events dominate? social events? Are the events symbolic--do they suggest other areas or planes of existence than those on (in) which they take place? Is there change or is the accent on permanence despite temporary variations?

7. With help from the instructor and class discussions, ask yourself how the work is put together--what is its structure? Who tells the story? How much does the narrator know? (everything?) Can you trust the narrator? Is the author's approach generally speaking more narrative (told by someone) or dramatic (presented in scenes so that the characters speak for themselves?) Does any particular character seem to speak for the author? Is the plot tight or loose, more or less important than other features, probable? Are the characters convincing? Are they individualized or types?

8. Together, we will deal with the question of the theme of the work. Sometimes it will be easy to put this into a sentence or two. What concerns keep coming back? What is stated and/or implied about the justice of the state of affairs envisioned in the work? the desirability? Does the situation at the end differ from the situation at the beginning? How does style relate to theme?

Sequence for Spring 2001. There are quizzes every class period, based on study questions I'll give you and "did-you-read-it" questions. There will be an essay mid-term and a final. You will write a paper as described above.

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Calendar for FL 209-51 Spring 2001

Tues. 30 Jan. Folk lit.—myth, fantastic tale, fairy tale, fable

Assign: A. Read Grimm Fairy Tales on-line: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/ Read these tales: 1. "The Three Spinners": http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/011.txt (=2 pp); 2. Faithful John: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/005.txt; 3. "The Three Languages": http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/025.txt

French Stories:Voltaire’s "Micromegas" (20)

Thurs. 1 Feb. QUIZ. Folk lit, cont. Voltaire.

Assign: French Stories: Balzac’s "The Atheist’s Mass" (19); Balzac's "Facino Cane" on-line: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext99/fcane10.txt

Begin Flaubert's "St. Julien the Hospitalier" read ________ 18 pp.

Tues. 6 Feb. QUIZ.

Assign: finish Flaubert's "St. Julien the Hospitalier" read ________ 10 pp.

In The Kreutzer Sonata...book: Tolstoy’s "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" (14);

Thurs. 8 Feb. QUIZ.

Assign: "The Death of Ivan Ilych" begin - 63] (48); In French Stories: Baudelaire’s "Spleen of Paris" (9)

Tues. 13 Feb. Quiz, discussion, group work, lectures.

Assign: in French Stories: " Maupassant’s "Minuet" (5); Maupassant on-line: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new?id=MauStor&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1 = "Mademoiselle Fifi" (7); and http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new?id=MauStor&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=27&division=div1 = "A Country Excursion" (7.5)

Thurs. 15 Feb. Revision: Meet in Library next door, Room 30. Quiz, discussion, library orientation and seeking of materials for your paper.

Assign: in French Stories: Gide’s "Return of the Prodigal Son" (18); hand-out story by Colette; on-line Kafka story: A HUNGER ARTIST http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~n9648471/kafka/khungerartist.html

Also very short Kafka stories as hand-outs.

Tues. 20 Feb. Quiz, etc….

Assign: French Stories --Aymé’s "The Passer-Through-Walls" 246 (11); New book The Art of the Tale (the fat book): Singer’s "Henne Fire" 658] (8).

Thurs. 22 Feb. Quiz, etc….

assign: The Art of the Tale: Borowski’s "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen" 110] (12); ): (post-war Germany) Borchert’s "Do Stay, Giraffe" 98 -99] (2); on-line or hand-out Borchert story______________ (6); Böll’s "Action Will Be Taken" 94 - 97] (4); Aichinger’s "The Bound Man" 9 - 17] (9); (North Africa) Boulaich & Bowles 122- 132] "Cowardice" & "A Distant Episode" (11). *Have your outside author & work chosen by Tues.*

Tues. 27 Feb. *deadline for choosing your outside project*

Assign: The Art of the Tale: Mahfouz’s "The Conjurer Made Off with the Dish" 411 - 416] (6); Mrabet’s "Doctor Safi" 481 - 487] (7); Begin Camus’ "The Adulterous Woman" 173 - 179]. (7)

Thurs. 1 March

Assign: The Art of the Tale: "The Adulterous Woman" 179 - 183] (4); Back to French Stories: Camus’ "The Guest" (16); Subsaharan Africa) Achebe’s "The Sacrificial Egg" 5 - 8] (4); Gordimer’s "Life of the Imagination" 331 - 340] (10); Begin new book—Calvino’s The Cloven Viscount p.145 - 162] (17)

Tues. 6 March. Quiz, etc. Assign: The Cloven Viscount p.162 - 185] (23)

Thurs. 8 March. Quiz, etc. Assign: Calvino’s The Cloven Viscount p.185 - 232] (45)

Tues. 13 March. Quiz, etc.

Assign: The Cloven Viscount p.232 - 246]=end (15); Study for Mid-Term Exam

Thurs. 15 March. QUIZ & Mid-term Exam on all authors studied so far

Assign for Tues 27 March: Back to The Art of the Tale: (Italy); Landolfi’s "Gogol’s Wife" 376] (9);Ginzburg’s "The Mother" 323 - 330] (8);

Buzzati’s "Seven Floors" 152] (11); (Canada) Gallant’s "The Chosen Husband" 305 - 317] (13); (Latin America) Fuentes’ "The Doll Queen" 294 - 304] (9);

Tues. 27 March

Assign: Begin Kenzaburo Oe's Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness:

story: __________________________ (72 pp.)

[Thurs. 29 March No Class – Instructor at conference.]

Tues. 3 April Quiz, etc. Assign for Thurs.: Kenzaburo Oe's Teach Us…, cont. ___________________ (23 pp.)

Thurs. 5 April. Quiz, etc. Assign: : Kenzaburo Oe, cont. _______________ (55 pp.)

Tues. 10 April. Quiz, etc. Assign: : Kenzaburo Oe, cont. _________________ (22 pp.)

Thurs. 12 April. Quiz, etc. Assign: : Kenzaburo Oe, cont. _________________ (55 pp.)

Tues. 17 April

Assign: 1. The Art of the Tale(Asia-Japan) Mishima’s "Patriotism" 459] (17). (Asia-India) Narayan’s "Naga" 502 - 508] (7);

Thurs. 19 April. Quiz, etc. Assign: The North China Lover. Read begin to p. 60].

Tues. 24 April

Assign: The North China Lover. Read pp. 60 - 84]

Thurs. 26 April

Assign: (shortened, because paper is due) The North China Lover. Read pp. 84 - 110]; Hand in your outside project.

Tues 1 May *Outside project due* Quiz, etc. Assign: North China Lover. 110 - 134]

Thurs. 3 May. Quiz, etc. Assign: The North China Lover. Read pp. 134 - 185]

Tues 8 May. Quiz, etc. Assign: The North China Lover. Read pp. 185] - end

Thurs. 10 May

Assign: Colette "The Hand"; Robbe-Grillet (hand-out); Study for Test 2.

Tues 15 May at 6:50 P.M. 2nd Exam on all authors since Mid-Term.
 

Page last updated 6 February 2001
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